Behind Blue Eyes
by mikk317
Summary: Wheatley's reflection on his life before he dies in cold, dark space. Oneshot. Songfic.


**_Based off of "Behind Blue Eyes", by The Who_  
**

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**YOU HAVE [0.00102%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

Wheatley felt... old. Years in space had led him to become quiet, contemplative, and exceedingly cynical. He had seen amazing things – binary stars, supernovas, and much, much more. Space had died years ago, destroyed by a passing asteroid. He had died happy, though, and that was enough. But anyhow... Wheatley was dying. He could feel the battery inside of him slowly dwindling, even though he was on "Power-Saver Mode". At the moment, he was at only 0.102 % battery capacity. In other words, Wheatley had only minutes to live. He gave a long, slow sigh, looked at his surroundings. Somehow, he had wound back up in Earth's orbit after his extraordinary journey across the galaxy. It seemed only appropriate that he died here. As Wheatley's optic flickered, he reflected on his life...

_No one knows what it's like__  
__To be the bad man__  
__To be the sad man__  
__Behind blue eyes_

He remembered when they had first met. When he first asked her to say "Apple" and she randomly started to jump. He watched her progress with confidence and excitement, he saw Chell go through tests like... well, he didn't even know. Perhaps it was the way she shot Portals with such ease, the way she never backed down from anything that popped up against her. If he didn't know her, he might've even thought she was having fun. But her true nature shone in her eyes – her cold, hard determination, unwavering in her stormy, gray eyes. Even after they had awoken Her, and She nearly killed him, he still believed in her with naïve, childish hope. But when Wheatley had finally gotten inside of Her body, something overtook him. Some sort of entity that had resided inside the body, another program perhaps, absorbed his persona, his voice, his thoughts, his feelings – everything that made Wheatley **Wheatley**. The original Wheatley just became another set eyes, see what happened outside of him, but unable to act. He could only watch sadly as his "doppelganger" exiled GlaDOS and Chell to the depths of the facility.

_No one knows what it's like__  
__To be hated__  
__To be fated__  
__To telling only lies_

He remembered watching the other program destroy the laboratory, doing nothing to keep the core from overheating, wasting energy and resources on experiments that were designed to fail. But then Chell returned, with GLaDOS attached to her Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, even! Wheatley cried out in joy at her reappearance, even though Chell couldn't see him. But as he looked into her eyes, he saw something different than the usual determination that resided there. This time, there was nothing calm, chilling fury, raging in her eyes. Wheatley then realized that she had no idea that this _wasn't him_. She didn't know it was just some clone that had adopted his voice as its own. He saw that she meant to kill him, unknowing of the disaster that had occurred within this body. And Wheatley was afraid.

_But my dreams__  
__They aren't as empty__  
__As my conscience seems to be_

As the unlikely pair dodged the mysterious entity's attempts to kill them, Whealtey overheard something from GLaDOS. Something about how GLaDOS had been originally created from someone named Caroline. Suddenly, everything made sense – the other entity's suicidal actions, the way it was destroying the entire facility, disregarding the fact that it might die – _IT ALL MADE SENSE!_The other being was Caroline! She must've gone insane from being ignored for hundreds of years, watching as GLaDOS tortured the test subjects, unable to do anything. And Wheatley empathized with her.

_I have hours, only lonely__  
__My love is vengeance__  
__That's never free_

Wheatley spent ages inside of Caroline, truly a ghost in the machine. During his boring stay, he pondered many things – his relationship with Chell, his thoughts on GLaDOS, how to find a way to communicate to her... those sorts of things. But GLaDOS was his main concern – she truly was terrible, and Wheatley was sure She'd turn on Chell after she got in control... he didn't know what to do.

_No one knows what it's like__  
__To feel these feelings__  
__Like I do__  
__And I blame you__  
_

Oh, how Wheatley _loathed_ GLaDOS. Her smugness, Her all-powerfulness, Her passive-aggressive nature, Her love of neurotoxin... he hated everything about _Her_. She would spend all day torturing the poor humans, disregarding what they might have thought, what they might have felt... I mean, _sure_ they were smelly, but _come on!_ Her treatment of them was unbearable. Gah! _She _was the moron.

_No one bites back as hard__  
__On their anger__  
__None of my pain and woe__  
__Can show through_

**YOU HAVE [0.00093%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

It was getting difficult to even think for Wheatley, as his battery died. See, when Aperture Science Personality Cores' battery began to dwindle, their primary functions would begin to shut down. This is what was happening to Wheatley.

_But my dreams__  
__They aren't as empty__  
__As my conscience seems to be_

**YOU HAVE [0.00079%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

Wheatley's conscience was falling away...

_I have hours, only lonely__  
__My love is vengeance__  
__That's never free_

**YOU HAVE [0.00056%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

He couldn't hold on for much longer...

_When my fist clenches, crack it open__  
__Before I use it and lose my cool__  
__When I smile, tell me some bad news__  
__Before I laugh and act like a fool_

**YOU HAVE [0.00032%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

Wheatley could feel his conscience slipping, his optic flickering very quickly, but he had to hold on...

_If I swallow anything evil__  
__Put your finger down my throat__  
__If I shiver, please give me a blanket__  
__Keep me warm, let me wear your coat_

**YOU HAVE [0.00018%] BATTERY LEFT. PLEASE GET A RECHARGE FROM AN APERTURE TESTING ASSOCIATE OR AN AUTOMATIC SHUTDOWN WILL BE INITIATED, AND YOU WILL LOSE ALL DATA.**

NO! Wheatley couldn't die now! He just had to find a way to talk to Chell... get a message to her that he was alright, that it wasn't him, that he was _sorry..._

**YOU HAVE [0.00010%] BATTERY LEFT. ANY LAST WISHES?**

"_A way... to get back... to Earth... would be nice..." _the dying Wheatley thought sarcastically.

**APERTURE SCIENCE EMERGENCY ROCKET BOOSTER HAVE BEEN ACTIVATED. YOU HAVE [0.00002%] BATTERY LEFT. APERTURE WISHES YOU A HAPPY AFTERLIFE!**

A small, cylindrical object protruded from Wheatley's "back" and began propelled swiftly and directly towards the blue marble below him.

"_Are you... serious?"_ Wheatley thought, stupefyed, _"I had this... all along, and... I didn't even... know it? Well... at least... I'll be propelled... toward Earth... maybe I'll... land there before... I... die..."_

Then, after a few more seconds, his optic flickered one last time, and died.

_No one knows what it's like__  
__To be the bad man__  
__To be the sad man__  
__Behind blue eyes_

Wheatley's body, now devoid of "life" was pushed just enough out of orbit to begin sailing towards Earth. Fortunately for his body, all Aperture products were built to withstand 4000 degrees Kelvin, so he came through the atmosphere quite safely before being deposited in an empty wheat field next to an old shack.

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_**I threw this together in about two hours, unedited, so I'm sorry about any mistakes I may have made. Thanks for reading!**_

_**EDIT: Thanks to Sonicfangamer2 for fixing my mistake!**_


End file.
